Narrator: George Ellington
Length: 13 hours 28 minutes
Publisher: Suzanne Rogerson⎮2020
Genre: Fantasy
Series: Silent Sea Chronicles, Book 1
Release date: Sep. 22, 2020
The Assembly controls Kalaya. Originally set up to govern, they now persecute those with magic and exile them to the Turrak Mountains.
Tei, a tailor’s daughter, has always hidden her magic, but when her father’s old friend visits and warns them to flee to the mountains, she must leave her old life behind.
On the journey, an attack leaves her father mortally wounded. He entrusts her into the care of the exiles and on his deathbed makes a shocking confession.
Struggling with self-doubt, Tei joins the exiles search for their new Sentinel who is the only person capable of restoring the fading magic. But mysterious Masked Riders are hunting the Sentinel too, and time, as well as hope, is running out.
Against mounting odds it will take friendship, heartache, and sacrifice for the exiles to succeed, but is Tei willing to risk everything to save the island magic?
If you like character-based fantasy, then you’ll love The Lost Sentinel - book one in the Silent Sea Chronicles trilogy.
Suzanne lives in Middlesex, England with her husband, two children and a crazy puppy.
Her writing journey began at the age of twelve when she completed her first novel. She discovered the fantasy genre in her late teens and has never looked back. Giving up work to raise a family gave Suzanne the impetus to take her attempts at novel writing beyond the first draft, and she is lucky enough to have a husband who supports her dream - even if he does occasionally hint that she might think about getting a proper job one day.
Now an author of four novels including the recently completed Silent Sea Chronicles trilogy and a Czech translation of her debut, Visions of Zarua, Suzanne hopes the dreaded ‘W’ word will never rear its ugly head again!
She loves gardening and has a Hebe (shrub) fetish. She enjoys cooking with ingredients from the garden and regularly feeds unsuspecting guests vegetable-based cakes.
Suzanne collects books, is interested in history and enjoys wandering around castles and old ruins whilst being immersed in the past. She likes to combine her love of nature and photography on family walks, but most of all she loves to escape with a great film, binge watch TV shows, or soak in a hot bubble bath with an ice cream and a book.
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About the Narrator: George Ellington
My name is George. Seoras, if you speak Gaelic. Born in the United States, German on my father’s side, a native of Bamberg, and a Stewart on my mother’s side from a wee parish outside Stirling. I am a keen learner, eager to travel the world around me, and an instructor of English with years of experience teaching in the US, Turkey, and Japan. In audiobook narration, I have discovered a perfect opportunity to perform and play with languages, dialects, characters, cultures. Essentially, my voice is my livelihood, and my spirit longs to explore.
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Interview with the Author
The Lost Sentinel follows three story threads that come together over the course of the trilogy and the main character holding everything together is Tei.
Tei is a young exiled mystic charged to find the missing Sentinel - the only person able to restore the dying magic of their island home. Tei has opposition from the Assembly, who are against all magic, and mysterious masked riders who seem determined to find the Sentinel too. Tei struggles to deal with the responsibility thrust upon her and suffers heartbreak at every turn but she never gives up even when everything is against her.
Did the story turn out the way you planned from the beginning?
I am not the greatest of planners, in fact I usually start with only a character and a situation and wait for the story to emerge as I write. Only then do I start to plan where the story will go. With The Lost Sentinel I always knew Tei was special and would need to face up to her destiny if she was going to save her people, but I didn’t realise the full scale of her involvement or how the fate of the other islands in the Silent Sea would also rest in her hands.
What real-life inspirations did you draw from for the worldbuilding within your book?
I have always loved nature and the natural world, so creating an island that has a connection with its people really appealed to me. I imagined our world and how our actions have consequences. How our greed, neglect and terrible misuse of resources and the creatures we share our home with is destroying our world. On the islands within the Silent Sea the inhabitants are destroying their homes with their disregard of magic, but it isn’t too late to change if they can just work together. I hope the same can be said for our world.
What inspires you to write?
My characters are my inspiration. I need to find them before I can start properly writing their story and once I get to know them I just want to keep going until their story has been told.
I have never been happy doing anything other than writing, I couldn’t imagine life without creating stories.
How do you to keep motivated?
I always have several projects on the go so I never get bored. I hate being idle and find when a book is finished that I feel an emptiness inside, so keeping going with other ideas helps curb that feeling.
Although I love writing, sometimes it’s important to switch off completely. I would happily spend day and night at the computer but when I’m trying to relax, I love nothing more than to binge watch TV shows on Netflix. It’s great for inspiring new ideas and characters too.
What was the hardest part of writing this book?
I suppose the hardest thing was the time it took me to write The Lost Sentinel. I started it years ago and broke off from it many times whilst I learnt my craft through evening and online classes. I then finished and published my debut, Visions of Zarua, before I was able to focus my attention of this book. I loved working on a trilogy as it gave me direction, but it was hard publishing them a year apart. I wish I could have shown some patience and waited to publish them a few months apart, but that’s just not me!
It will be nice to do that with the audiobooks instead. Hopefully, the whole series will be complete by early 2021.
Was it strange listening to someone else voice your words?
As with my previous audiobook, I’m amazed with the difference hearing someone narrate your story can bring to a novel. George has given the characters life beyond the page and acted out the emotions of the story so well. He’s also added some sound effects that have given the scenes more depth.
What was your favorite chapter (or part) to listen to in The Lost Sentinel and why?
I have some favourite scenes that I was looking forward to hearing George narrate and he didn’t disappoint. He didn’t just narrate them; he performed them and captured the emotions of those traumatic events. I can’t explain the scenes I’m talking about as they involve the deaths of some prominent characters, but George did my characters proud.
Is it different having a trilogy being produced in audiobook, than just a standalone?
It has been an interesting experience having the trilogy produced and I’ve enjoyed working with George on a longer project. He’s very professional and we’re found a way to work that suits us both.
One good thing about the trilogy is knowing there is still more to come. Book 2 is almost finished and we still have book 3 to go. I know I’m in for many more hours of enjoyment watching the trilogy reach its conclusion and I hope listeners will feel the same way. The end of the trilogy is very special to me so I can’t wait to hear George narrate it.
What are your future projects?
I am working on two main projects that I hope to publish in 2021; a new fantasy trilogy and a series of romantic novellas set within a fictional seaside town in England. This is a departure from my favourite fantasy genre, but I feel passionately about the new project and can’t wait to share it with readers and listeners. I’m also working on a spy novel with a friend and it’ll be interesting to see what we come up with together.
After that I hope to dive back into the world of the Silent Sea and see what has become of my characters. I’ve really missed them, though I’ve love reconnecting with them whilst listening to the production of the audiobooks.